Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg gives $US25 million to fight Ebola

Jessica Guynn

San Francisco: Australia's financial contribution to the Ebola fight has been easily overshadowed in one Facebook post by the company's leader who has committed $US25 million ($28.7 million) to the effort.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are giving the sum to the CDC Foundation to help fight the Ebola epidemic.

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In a Facebook post, Mr Zuckerberg said the epidemic is "at a critical turning point".

"It has infected 8400 people so far, but it is spreading very quickly and projections suggest it could infect 1 million people or more over the next several months if not addressed," he wrote. "We need to get Ebola under control in the near term so that it doesn't spread further and become a long-term global health crisis that we end up fighting for decades at large scale, like HIV or polio.

"We believe our grant is the quickest way to empower the CDC and the experts in this field to prevent this outcome," he continued. "Grants like this directly help the front-line responders in their heroic work. These people are on the ground setting up care centers, training local staff, identifying Ebola cases and much more."

The donation will go to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention's Ebola response effort in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and in other spots in the world where Ebola is a threat, the foundation said on Tuesday.

Mr Zuckerberg and Ms Chan are making the grant from their fund at the non-profit Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Australia so far has contributed only $18 million to efforts to combat the lethal epidemic which has claimed victims in Europe and the United States, as well as Africa.